


The Truth Is Hiding In Your Eyes

by todxrxki



Series: Kenma Ship Week 2020 [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Comedy, Fluff, M/M, Romantic Comedy, Twilight References, kind of, this is a mess and i apologize in advance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25543132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/todxrxki/pseuds/todxrxki
Summary: The mystery man spins on his heel, shockingly agile for someone of his size, and then takes off running. He’s way faster than Kenma would have expected. Almost… inhumanly fast.Huh, Kenma thinks. Maybe this new addition to their school will prove far more interesting than Kenma had initially anticipated. / In which an interesting new kid arrives at Kozume Kenma's school, and Kenma can't help but theorize about the mysteries hiding in Ushijima's dark past.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Ushijima Wakatoshi
Series: Kenma Ship Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850890
Comments: 17
Kudos: 84
Collections: Kenma Ship Week 2020





	The Truth Is Hiding In Your Eyes

The shrill alarm sounds from Kenma’s phone at an ungodly hour. He groans, clutching his head and thinking that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t the best idea for him to stay up until the wee hours of the dawn playing video games. But it  _ had  _ been the last night of his summer vacation, and therefore his last opportunity to enjoy himself. 

He scowls to himself as he pulls his uniform shirt over his head, uniform pants over his legs, and his chest fills with dread at the thought of another year in a small town  _ nowhere.  _ Kenma’s lived here for years now: since he was six and his parents decided to move from Tokyo to somewhere simpler and quieter. Even as a child he’d known this was a bad idea, simply by virtue of the fact that the nearest game shop is in the next town over. But he hadn’t been able to convince his parents otherwise, and ever since then, his life has been a hellish monotony. Go to school, come home, immerse himself in video games because what else was he supposed to do? Everyone else in his stupid town is so boring. Nothing can even come close to competing with his games.

And the mobile game he’d started playing recently was among the most interesting.  _ Vamp Harem -  _ the title was less than creative, that much was true. But there was something in the plot and characterization that drew Kenma in regardless - the way the vampire brothers brought life to the game. And it certainly didn’t hurt that they were hot.

Not that Kenma would admit that to anyone. He isn’t exactly looking to get beaten up at school.

With a sigh, he tosses his bag over his shoulder and heads to the kitchen. He grabs a pastry from the counter and calls out, “I’m headed off to school, Okaasan!”

That, unfortunately, is enough to lure his mother out, phone camera in hand. “Oh, my baby Kenma is growing up so fast,” she says, squeezing his cheek, and that’s enough to get Kenma rushing out the door towards the school building - however much he might hate school, it’s at least more tolerable than a photo shoot in his ugly school uniform.

He makes his way through the building with his head down, doing his best to avoid anyone who looks at all like they might want to talk to him, until he finally reaches his classroom. There’s a lot of the usual suspects from the year before, like the guy with the dyed mohawk. Kenma tries to unobtrusively slink to the back of the classroom, and settles into a back desk when he catches wind of the conversation in front of him.

“Have you heard about the new guy?”

The other girl gives a little laugh under her breath. “I saw him,” she says. “He’s so gorgeous. That body… wow, I could just swoon.”

_ A new guy? _ This is news to Kenma. His small school rarely gets new students - maybe once every few years, so new kids are always a huge deal. He listens a little closer. Maybe something interesting will finally happen in this town. 

“People have said he’s not that friendly, though,” one of the girls says, lowering her voice. “He’s been, well, really standoffish and kind of blunt to the people who have tried to talk to him.”

“Well, if he looks like that, it doesn’t really matter much,” says the other girl with a laugh.

_ Hm.  _ No gossip about tragic backstories or criminal pasts. Maybe this guy won’t bring any interest to Kenma’s sleepy city, either. He sighs, putting his head down on his arms that are folded in front of him, and lets himself drift off to sleep - until attendance is called, at least.

The day crawls on. It’s as boring as Kenma remembers - classes upon classes, introductions upon introductions. He finds himself even more exhausted by the end of the day, crawling out the door when he runs into something very large and very solid.

He jumps back, about to make a run for it and probably just run all the way home.  _ Shit,  _ he thinks _ - _ all the people he knows here that are  _ that  _ big are incredibly unpleasant. But then a deep voice emanates from the large person. “My apologies.”

Kenma glances up, bewildered. No one he knows has a voice like that. And the lingering coldness on his arms from where the larger man had brushed them tells him that there’s something strange going on here.

Sure enough, he thinks as he processes the other person’s appearance, he’s never seen this man before. He’s tall and extremely muscular, his hair cut into a plain style and his brows bushy as they knit together in probable confusion. Kenma doesn’t know what to say as he stares up at the other man, but he’s about to mumble something about it being his bad and then take off running when the other man beats him to it.

The mystery man spins on his heel, shockingly agile for someone of his size, and then takes off running. He’s way faster than Kenma would have expected.

Almost…  _ inhumanly fast. _

Huh, Kenma thinks. Maybe this new addition to their school will prove far more interesting than Kenma had initially anticipated. 

.

He spends most of his night researching, comparing his experience with the mystery guy to the game he can’t stop playing, searching online to find myths about supernatural creatures. The cold skin and inhuman reflexes screams vampire, but it almost seems too simple. 

He keeps his eyes peeled for the new guy the next day as he arrives at school, but he’s nowhere to be found. A feeling that’s almost like disappointment wriggles its way into Kenma’s stomach. Kenma elects to ignore it.

But it’s not like Kenma to give up on things he’s curious about, so instead of paying attention during his classes, he formulates a plan.

During lunch, he turns to the girls in front of him. He doesn’t like talking to strangers much, and even though the girls have sat in front of him for  _ years  _ now, they still feel like strangers somehow. But this is necessary for the completion of his quest, he tells himself. He clears his throat. “Uh. Hi. I heard you two talking about the new guy yesterday, and I wanted to ask…”

“Oh, you can talk?” one of the girls asks with wide eyes, and Kenma stares flatly at her. God, he hates interacting with people. Of  _ course  _ he can fucking talk. He just elects not to. The two girls giggle, and Kenma’s face burns. He contemplates running away, but then he wouldn’t find out the information he needs to continue his quest. 

“Yes,” Kenma mutters. “Uh, anyways, the new guy. Do you happen to know what class he’s in?”   
  


“Ah,” the girl says, her mouth twisted up. “Why? Are you interested? Even the guys are interested in him now?”

What the hell? Kenma’s mouth twists downwards in disgust. “Uh, no. The teacher wants me to relay a message to him.”

“Whatever you say,” the girl says in a tone that implies she doesn’t believe a word of it. “He’s a year above us, so year three, Class C, I think. Good luck.”

Kenma hates the expression on her face. He scowls at her and burrows down deeper into his chair.

But after class, he heads out, navigating through the halls filled with people until he finds the broad shoulders of the mystery guy again. He decides to keep his distance, trailing him for about five meters - his hulking figure makes him easy to spot in a crowd. He follows him out of the school and then, rather than making the turn to his own house, he keeps following him straight down the road, watching every move the guy makes. Which, honestly, hasn’t been that interesting so far - he walks stiffly, not glancing at his phone like the other guys their age, not stopping even once. He also walks at a too-brisk pace that Kenma doesn’t appreciate, because it leaves him panting for breath and having to lean against things.

And then, after ten minutes or so of following the guy, he turns around.

Kenma jumps back, positioning himself behind a tree, but it doesn’t seem to matter. The guy’s gaze stays trained on him, his eyes narrowing. “Why were you following me?”

Kenma steps out from behind the tree. He contemplates running once more, but he’s seen the superhuman quality of this guy’s speed. So instead he decides to try his best not to get killed. “Uh,” he says. “I’m not.”

“That does not make sense,” the guy replies. “You were tracking my exact movements and keeping yourself exactly fifteen paces behind me. Additionally, as soon as I turned around, you jumped behind a tree. What do you want with me?”

“Nothing,” Kenma says hastily. “Sorry.” He steps back slowly, putting his hands up the slightest bit. “Please don’t kill me,” he mutters, barely audible.

Somehow, though, the guy picks up on it anyways. “Kill you? Why would I do that?” His eyebrows furrow together. “Oh. You’re the person from yesterday.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“I apologize for that. I didn’t mean to run into you, and I had to get to my… appointment.” He winces almost imperceptibly, though, and Kenma doesn’t trust him in the least. “I hear that one way to make up these things is to offer some food to the one you’ve wronged. Would you be interested? I will not attempt to murder you.”

Kenma blinks. “Well, that’s reassuring.”

“Is that a yes?”

This guy doesn’t get sarcasm at  _ all,  _ Kenma realizes. But he does want to go with him to get food, because if he is a vampire, which Kenma heavily suspects, he won’t be able to eat human food. It’ll serve well for his investigation.

“Yes,” Kenma says. “I know a bakery nearby.” Then he pauses. “Wait. Uh, what’s your name?”

“Ushijima Wakatoshi,” Ushijima says, extending a hand. His skin is cold again against Kenma’s. It’s oddly grounding. “A pleasure to meet you, I suppose. And you are?”

“Kozume Kenma,” Kenma says. “Can we go now? I’m really craving an apple pie.”

.

Kenma had not expected to end up that afternoon in a bakery, seated across from the boy that’s been the talk of the school for weeks. He glances down at the miniature pie in front of him. “Thanks for the pie.”

“It was necessary to compensate for running into you earlier,” Ushijima says. “I hope this puts us on equal footing again.” Kenma nods, taking another bite of his pie, and Ushijima just stares at him. It’s honestly kind of uncomfortable, Kenma thinks, so he clears his throat.

“You didn’t want to eat anything?” he asks, remembering his primary objective here.

“No,” he says, and then his gaze darts downwards again. “I was not that hungry.” 

Hmm, Kenma thinks. It’s suspicious, certainly, but not the cold, hard proof that he’s looking for. He swallows. “So where did you move here from?”

“I moved here from Miyagi,” Ushijima says without missing a beat. “Unfortunately, my father is a volleyball trainer, and he acquired a new job here. Therefore, he brought the entire family with him.”

_ A volleyball trainer?  _ Surely, that seems like an odd occupation for a vampire. But well, they  _ do  _ have inhuman speedquickness, and are less quick to tire out than normal humans. Are vampires known for being tall?

He blinks. “I see,” he says.

“Uh,” Ushijima says, looking as awkward as Kenma feels at that moment. “So. How long have you lived in this… town?”

“Too long,” Kenma mutters. “Ten years.”

“Do you not enjoy it here, then?” Ushijima asks. And… oddly enough, he’s the first one who’s ever asked.

He’d never been consulted about moving here in the first place. His parents hadn’t ever asked him how he felt about it, and of course, no one in his class would ask him about how he felt, given the fact that he never talked to any of them. It causes a weird sensation to surface in his chest. He bites down on his lip. “Uh, no. I hate it here.”

“Why?” Ushijima says. “I have not seen anything too objectionable about this place, but admittedly I have not lived here half as long as you have.”

“It’s just boring,” Kenma says, lifting a shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “I used to live in Tokyo. Tokyo was… exciting. Just walking down the street, I could get to a game store, or a bakery, or anywhere I wanted to be. And the people were more interesting. Here it feels like everyone’s the same. The only thing that’s interesting here is my video games, so that’s what I do basically every day.”

“You play video games all day?” Ushijima says, like it’s something weird. Kenma knows of a lot of guys his age that do the same thing, though. He hardly thinks it could be described as abnormal.

“Yeah,” Kenma replies. “Why? Do you not play them?”

“I have never played a video game,” Ushijima says ominously.

And to be fair, Kenma shouldn’t have expected that a motherfucking vampire would play video games, yet he’s still mortally offended. “Not even one?!”

“I think I may have played pinball once,” Ushijima says. “Does that count?”

“No,” Kenma says. “God, this is unbelievable.”

“I do not think I would be fond of games on a screen. I prefer when games let me display my physical prowess.”

Kenma shakes his head, leaning back in his chair. “It’s more fun when you can explore entire worlds without getting tired.”

“I don’t tire easily.”

“Everyone tires eventually,” Kenma says, his throat feeling dry - maybe because he hasn’t talked this much to a real person in what feels like actual years. Or does it even count as an actual person if the one he’s having the long conversation with is a vampire? He makes himself continue, though, and says, “You’re coming with me to the arcade tomorrow.” 

“You are inviting me to an… arcade? What is an arcade?” Ushijima’s thick brows narrow again, one hand on his chin, like he’s desperately trying to figure this one out. And there’s no fucking way this guy can be human and not know what the hell an arcade is, Kenma thinks. Another point in the vampire category.

“It’s like a room full of big video games,” Kenma tries to explain, and when this doesn’t seem to ring any bells, he sighs. “I’ll show you tomorrow.”

Bringing a vampire to an arcade, he thinks wryly. Who knows, maybe he’ll be inhumanly good at the games too. 

Ushijima just nods. “That is acceptable, so long as it does not interfere with my usual duties,” he says, glancing out the window. It’s fairly sunny today. Kenma suddenly can’t help but wonder how Ushijima goes out in this kind of weather. Aren’t vampires supposed to burn in the sun?

Holy shit, does Ushijima sparkle?!

.

When Kenma gets home about an hour later, his mother confronts him immediately, asking him in her usual less-than-subtle fashion, “You’re home late. Any specific reason?”

“Just went by a bakery,” Kenma mumbles, putting his bag up and avoiding eye contact. His mom has always been able to read him too well, and he doesn’t want to give her any excuse to start interrogating him about this new Ushijima thing. 

“You went by yourself?”

_ How is she always so good at figuring this stuff out,  _ Kenma thinks spitefully, and then remembers that he had to have gotten his powers of observation from somewhere. “Yeah,” he lies, though. “I went alone.”

His mother gives him a look that says she doesn’t fully believe him, but thankfully, she lets him go. He lies on his bed, his mind plagued with thoughts - about the fact that he’d just eaten pie and made plans for tomorrow with a probable vampire. Hopefully he’s like the vampires in  _ Vamp Harem,  _ at least, and won’t drag Kenma into an alley to suck his blood after their meetup… or  _ date?  _ No, it wasn’t a date. He’d know if it were a date, wouldn’t he?

Shaking his head, he throws himself back into the game, selecting a mildly spicy dialogue option just for the hell of it. The vampire gets flustered, avoiding eye contact, but no blood rises to his cheeks - because he doesn’t have any. That gets Kenma thinking, though. Can Ushijima blush?

He hadn’t blushed at all yesterday, but Kenma hadn’t really been trying to fluster him, either. Maybe he should add another objective to their meetup tomorrow.

For the first time in a long time, Kenma actually feels excited about something outside of video games. It’s a foreign feeling. He falls asleep with a fluttering heart and warmth in his cheeks.

.

He pays even less attention in class than usual, his head formulating strategies like he’s playing a game, but manages to make it through the day nonetheless. As soon as the bell chimes for the end of the day, he darts out of his classroom, keeping his head down so as not to be noticed. Unfortunately, though, this means he runs smack dab into someone again.

“Kozume,” comes the deep voice, and Kenma finds he’s relieved, almost, to find that it’s Ushijima. “I was just on the way to your classroom. I suppose you were also on the way to mine.”

“Yeah,” Kenma says. “Did you still want to…”

“Go to the arcade? Yes, I would enjoy that,” Ushijima says, then pauses. “Or at least, I think I would. Since I’ve never been to one, I cannot say for sure, but since you seem to enjoy them a lot, I think it’s probable.”

_ Literally no normal human talks like this,  _ Kenma thinks, and that fills him with an odd sort of joy. It’s a joy that dissipates quickly, though, as they walk down the hallway. Kenma had failed to think about the fact that walking around with the notably attractive new kid would inevitably draw attention to him. He should’ve asked Ushijima to meet him somewhere outside….

“Kozume,” comes Ushijima’s booming voice. “Are you all right?”

Kenma gives a slight nod. “Yeah. Sorry, I just… everyone’s staring at me.”

“Oh,” Ushijima says. “I see. Are you popular?”

“Am I... what?” Kenma says. “No. Not at all. It’s more that you’re the mysterious new guy, and I’m walking around with you, and I…”  _ I don’t really talk to anyone, pretty much ever, so I’m sure this is a novel thing for them.  _ He swallows. 

“I see,” Ushijima says, as though he’s processing this information. “Well, let’s go then.” He steps in front of Kenma, though, his body basically blocking people from seeing Kenma. Kenma debates for a second before he follows him closely, hiding himself behind Ushijima’s body. 

As they make their way out of the school, Kenma finds himself observing Ushijima. His skin isn’t super pale white, but it is slightly whiter than Kenma’s, and it’s not like Kenma himself spends time in the sun… ever. He’s definitely muscular, though, and he knows vampires are supposed to have, like, superhuman strength. So that, at least, adds up.

He wants to reach out and brush Ushijima’s hand to feel if it’s just as cold as it’d been yesterday. He decides that it’d probably be too weird. But maybe he could convince Ushijima that it’s a weird human friendship ritual…?

Nah. Still too weird.

Stepping off campus, the air all leaves his lungs at once. He takes the lead, stepping in front of Ushijima so that he can lead them to the nearest arcade. Ushijima doesn’t make any comments. Instead, he just follows Kenma closely. 

Neither of them speak.

“This is it,” Kenma says, stepping up in front of the building. The piercing sound of the games drifts out of the building towards them.

Ushijima just stares. “It’s loud,” he comments.

“Yeah,” Kenma agrees. “I don’t mind so much here. It’s like… I forget about the rest of the world around me when I’m playing games, I guess.”   
  


“Hm,” Ushijima says, as though he doesn’t really understand it. Still, he doesn’t make fun of Kenma for it, at least. “Show me which one is the best game to play, then.”

“Come on, then,” Kenma says. A lot of the regulars are there, Kenma realizes with a quick look around. They aren’t exactly the most social people, so they greet Kenma with a simple nod or knowing stare instead of a verbal greeting, but that’s more than okay with Kenma. He makes his way over to one of the open machines. “This one,” he says, pointing at the machine. 

“Pac-Man,” Ushijima reads out loud. “Is this yellow creature a character?”

“Yeah, he’s who you play as,” Kenma says. “Your objective is to eat all the white pellets. But if the colorful, uh, ghosts catch up to you, you’ll die.”

“I’ll die?” 

“Your character will die,” Kenma explains quickly, not wanting Ushijima to get the wrong idea... “And if you die enough times, you will lose the game.”   
  


“I will lose the game?” Ushijima asks, sounding positively affronted in a way that’s almost cute, or it would be if Ushijima weren’t over half a foot taller than Kenma and three times as muscular, not to mention a clearly very powerful vampire. “I’m not going to lose,” Ushijima adds. “I am going to win.”

“Okay,” Kenma says, stepping back to let Ushijima step up to the game. There’s an intense look of concentration on his face as he takes out a simple leather wallet and inserts two coins into the coin slot. He’s carrying cash, Kenma notes, something that’s becoming more and more outdated in their society - almost like he’s from another era altogether.

The game starts up, and Ushijima’s grip tightens on the joystick. Kenma absently wonders if his grip is strong enough to break it, but he hopes not, because this is his favorite arcade and he’s not really looking to get banned from it. But thankfully the joystick doesn’t break. Instead, Ushijima starts frantically tilting it back and forth, trying his best to escape the ghosts. He makes it for about a minute and racks up a few points before he dies for the first time, and he loses his other lives just minutes after.

“I will have to practice more,” he says, and once again, Kenma can’t help thinking that it’s  _ cute.  _ God, Kenma must be possessed or something, thinking that a vampire is cute. But then Ushijima says, “You should try now.”

“We might be here a while,” Kenma says flatly. “It takes me a while to die.”

“You have a lot of confidence.”

“I just know my own abilities,” Kenma replies with a shrug. He’s not confident in most things, honestly - not in social situations, not in romance, but gaming is the one area where he knows his strength.

“Please, go ahead,” Ushijima says, motioning towards the machine. Kenma’s about to reach for his own wallet when Ushijima takes more from his wallet instead, then steps aside so Kenma can play. It’s… a strangely nice gesture. Certainly nicer than Kenma’s experienced from any human recently. 

“Thanks,” he says, glancing over at Ushijima, and he thinks he sees something like a smile on his face. And somehow that in itself is enough to give him the motivation to beat this damn game.

Ushijima watches him intently as he plays, as he racks up points and skillfully avoids the ghosts. He doesn’t say much - some small comments like “Good job” every now and then, but mostly he remains silent. When Kenma finally finishes, though, and turns to look at him, there’s a look of mild awe on his face. “I see I have a lot to live up to,” he says finally. “I think I need to practice more. Can we come back tomorrow?”

It can’t hurt, Kenma figures, to get more time to observe him. So he nods. “Tomorrow it is.”

.

They go back to the arcade tomorrow, and then the next day too. On the third day, Ushijima suggests that they go back to the bakery. And just like that, Kenma starts spending the majority of his free time with Ushijima Wakatoshi: suspected vampire, but overall mysterious and therefore intriguing guy.

And the more time Kenma spends with Ushijima, the more convinced he becomes that Ushijima can’t possibly be a product of their current time period.

There are just certain things that even  _ Kenma’s  _ aware of that Ushijima just isn’t. He has no idea about any social media platforms: he says he’s never heard of Line, and assumed Twitter was an aviary. He doesn’t know how to use his phone camera for the life of him. When Kenma complains about everyone wearing the same brand of clothes, Ushijima says he’s never even heard of the brand. Kenma points at one of their shops as they make their way down the street. Ushijima’s brows narrow, and he says, “I suppose I never noticed that that was there. Thank you for pointing that out.”

He finds, though, that Ushijima is an interesting person. He’s stubborn, competitive to a fault - which explains the amount that Ushijima keeps going back to the arcade, despite not being completely good at it - and very blunt. However, he’s also soft at times. Once, while walking down the street, Kenma had gotten a little too distracted by the game he’d been playing on his phone and tripped over a bump on the street. Ushijima had been there within seconds, offering him a hand.

“Are you all right?” he’d asked, his brow furrowed in concern. “Did you hurt yourself anywhere?”

Kenma had taken his hand, which was once again too cold, his skin weirdly hard, almost as if he was holding the hand of a statue.  _ Vampire,  _ he reminded himself. “I’m fine,” he’d said, though.

Ushijima’s eyes hadn’t left him, though, as he got back up to his feet. “Pay more attention to your surroundings.”

Kenma gave a small chuckle. He couldn’t help himself - Ushijima went from caring to brusque so quickly. “I’ll try,” he’d replied. 

There are also certain things about Ushijima that make him a weird- ass vampire, though. For one, the whole volleyball thing. Kenma finds out that it’s not just Ushijima’s father that’s a volleyball freak. Ushijima himself eats, breathes, and lives volleyball. It’s what he’s doing whenever he’s not hanging out with Kenma, at school, doing homework, sleeping, or eating, Ushijima says. He plays for the city’s youth league since their little school doesn’t actually have a team, and hopes to go pro one day. 

_ One day.  _ Kenma feels a surge of pity. There’s no way a vampire could go pro, right? With all the health checks, they’d be bound to figure something out, and he’d have to quit eventually, anyways when the leagues realized he didn’t age. Couldn’t he have chosen some other goal to strive for? Something that was more realistic for a vampire?

But even beyond that, there’s the fact that Ushijima hangs out with Kenma all the time. Kenma is sure he himself is human - too human, he thinks sometimes - which means he has red blood pumping through his veins at all times. Therefore, each moment spent with Kenma must be torture for Ushijima. Kenma imagines it to be like standing in front of a slice of steaming hot apple pie on an empty stomach and being told that he has to abstain from eating it. It’s too torturouse to even imagine. Kenma can’t picture choosing to be in such close proximity to humans every single day. He figures he’d go live in the woods in a cabin, like the vampire brothers in  _ Vamp Harem  _ until the main character had shown up to interrupt their quietude - but Kenma could only live there given that the cabin has electricity, of course.

But, weirdly enough, he’s beginning to trust Ushijima. If Ushijima actually wanted to kill him, he’s had every opportunity to do so over the past couple of weeks. Maybe Ushijima’s a good vampire. A ‘vegetarian’, for lack of a better comparison.

Still, what if one day Ushijima gives in? He’d be able to take down Kenma in half a second, and that would be it for Kenma.

It’s this dilemma that plagues Kenma as he attempts to sleep every night, yet he meets up with Ushijima after school every day regardless. Maybe he is a little bit of an idiot after all.

.

“Kenma,” comes his mother’s voice as he walks in the door, attempting to be as quiet as possible as not to attract attention.  _ Shit.  _ That hadn’t gone as well as hoped.

He winces as he calls back, “Yes?”   
  


“Did you join a school club? You’ve been getting back awfully late these past few weeks.”

Probably best not to lie, Kenma decides - his mother has an ear for his lies and that’d just make him look even more suspicious. “No,” he says, and then braces himself for the storm as he finishes, “I’ve been hanging out with a friend.”

“A friend?” He can hear the clattering of dishes in the kitchen as his mother drops something out of shock, and seconds later, her head pops into the room. “You’ve been willingly hanging out with someone?”

“Don’t say it like it’s that big of a shock,” Kenma grumbles. “We’ve just been hanging out at the arcade.”

“At the arcade?!” His mother gasps. “Just a friend, you say?”

“Yes, mother,” he replies. It’s not like he could  _ like  _ Ushijima. Ushijima is one of the only interesting people he’s ever met in his town, that much is true, and Ushijima has the otherworldly beauty that comes with being a vampire. But Kenma isn’t romantically interested in him.

Still. It would suck if Ushijima were to date someone else and Kenma had less time to observe Ushijima. And it wouldn’t be the worst thing ever to date Ushijima, Kenma thinks. It’d be kind of badass to date a vampire, almost like he’s dating one of the vampires from  _ Vamp Harem.  _ And the vampires in  _ Vamp Harem _ were always incredibly charming...

God, does he actually have feelings for Ushijima?!

He contemplates burying himself in his bed and never coming back out again. But then if he did that, the mystery of vampire Ushijima would never be solved, and…

And he’d never see Ushijima again.

Kenma hits himself in the face with his pillow.

.

Kenma contemplates distancing himself from Ushijima. It only seems logical, because there’s no way he can actually be with a vampire, despite what  _ Vamp Harem  _ conveys. Even the vampires in  _ Vamp Harem  _ make their misgivings about dating humans very clear. But the thought of going back to his old life of playing video games alone all day seems very depressing all of a sudden, so he finds himself by Ushijima’s side yet again after school.

They decide to stop by the bakery again. Kenma watches as yet again, Ushijima doesn’t get anything, instead offering to buy something for Kenma. He considers his best plan of action as he bites into his apple pie. He asks Ushijima about how his volleyball training is going, lets him ramble about things he doesn’t understand - jump height and power and such - until Ushijima’s speech is interrupted by the buzzing of Ushijima’s flip phone. 

“You’re getting a call,” Kenma points out, his gaze drifting down to Ushijima’s phone. 

Ushijima’s eyes widen. “I have to take this,” he says, getting to his feet rapidly. “I apologize.”

Kenma doesn’t like sitting alone in the bakery. He doesn’t like the way he feels like everyone is staring at him for absolutely no reason at all, nor does he like the way that the table feels so empty without Ushijima there with him. He taps his feet against the ground, waiting, waiting, until finally Ushijima returns, his expression no less frantic.

“Kenma,” he says. “I apologize. I have to go. I will see you tomorrow, I hope.”

He turns and runs (at an inhumanly fast pace, yet again) before Kenma has the chance to even say goodbye, and that’s when Kenma decides.

He has to tell Ushijima that he knows. 

He doesn’t want to be left behind anymore. He doesn’t want Ushijima to feel like he has to hide who he is or whatever. And even beyond that, he just wants more information, insider information on the world of the vampires. It’d gone well for the main character of  _ Vamp Harem  _ when they’d revealed that they knew the brothers were vampires, after all. And given the way things are between him and Ushijima, Kenma gets the feeling it will go similarly for him.

Well, he hopes so, at least.

So, in that moment, he makes a resolve: he’s going to tell Ushijima that he knows.

.

Or at least he tells himself that. 

Days pass, though, and Kenma just can’t find the right opportunity. He can’t casually drop it in the midst of Ushijima’s Pac-Man game, or while they’re racing against the annoying ass Mario CPU on the Mario Kart arcade games. He’s afraid of eavesdroppers while they walk down the street or sit in the bakery.

Besides, it’s not as though it’s easy to slip into conversation.  _ “Hey, by the way, I know you’re a vampire,” _ when Ushijima’s talking about the best strategy to use to defeat the boss in a video game. So he waits. But he can’t help feeling antsy the longer he waits.

And then, finally, everything comes to a head. 

They’re walking down the usual path, a path Kenma has memorized because he walks it so often, so he keeps his eyes trained even more intensely on his game than usual. This proves to be his downfall, though. He can’t predict that there will be a rock in his path that’s not usually there - probably dropped by some kid - but it’s over a bridge. A bridge that’s over a creek.

And Kenma goes tumbling in.

In a final act of self-preservation, he tosses his phone to the shore so that it won’t get wet. He feels the stark coldness of the water as it overwhelms him, the darkness that covers him as he starts to sink. He knows how to swim, he does, but his legs wiggle uselessly and he exhales as if to scream but ends up with a lungful of disgusting creek water instead. For a moment, he knows with certainty that he is going to die.

But then there’s  _ something.  _ A hard tug on his arm, a sharp pull, and before Kenma knows it, he’s lying on the side of the creek, his body spread out against the warm grass. He looks over to see Ushijima by his side.

“That was fast,” he says, or at least he tries to. It comes out as a bunch of painful, sharp coughs instead.

“Take your time,” Ushijima says. “You inhaled some water. It’ll take some time to get your bearings back.”

Kenma coughs a few more times, getting the water out of his body, but his voice still comes out scratchy as he says, “How did you get to me so quickly?”

“I didn’t think,” Ushijima replies, a thoughtful look on his face. “I just jumped, I suppose. And I have always had quick reflexes.”

“Oh,” Kenma says.  _ Quick reflexes  _ \- that had been more than quick. It had been inhuman. And it’s this that motivates Kenma to finally, finally say, “I know what you are.”

Kenma’s not exactly sure how he’s expecting Ushijima to respond, but it’s not by staring at Kenma, his eyebrows furrowed. “You know what I am? Athletic?”

“Athlet -  _ no _ ,” Kenma says. “I mean, that you’re a vampire.”

For a second, there’s no response. Kenma’s sure it has to be because he’s realized that he’s been caught, that his secret has been exposed, and now he has to think of a way to cover it up. Kenma’s about to tell him that he won’t tell anyone and his secret is safe with Kenma, but then Ushijima makes a sound, quiet and soft. Kenma’s head snaps over to stare at him. He does it again, and Kenma finally realizes that Ushijima’s laughing.

_ Laughing?  _ That doesn’t seem like a proper reaction. Kenma narrows his eyebrows. “Aren’t you scared I’m going to tell people or something?”

“I,” Ushijima starts, and then laughs again, this time much louder and deeper. “Why do you think that I am a vampire?”

“Because,” Kenma says, and then launches into it. “Your skin is cold. You’re inhumanly fast and strong. You look like a greek sculpture or something. I’ve never seen you eat anything before, even though we go to a bakery pretty regularly. You’re mysterious about your life. You don’t know anything about modern technology, and you  _ still have a flip phone! _ It only makes sense!”

Ushijima blinks, his expression unchanging for a second before he laughs again, an entire belly laugh. Kenma narrows his gaze and crosses his arms as he waits for Ushijima to be finished already, and then, finally, Ushijima says, “Unfortunately, I am not a vampire.”

“You… you aren’t?”

“No. Honestly, I am not sure why my skin is cold - bad circulation, maybe. I am fast and strong because I am training to become a professional volleyball player and therefore I train and work out for hours every day. I am glad you think this is to an inhuman level. This is the same reason for my appearance, along with good genetics. I do not eat apple pie because it is not on my approved dietary regimen. I do not intend to be mysterious. You can ask me anything about my life, if you want. Also, I do not know anything about technology because… well, I do not have time to learn in between school and volleyball, and - And now you as well.”

Kenma’s brain stops functioning. 

Holy shit. All of that, and this entire time Ushijima has just been… a normal human? An awkward one, albeit, but a normal human nonetheless. Kenma stares at him, unable to process what’s happening. 

And then it hits him that he’s just made the biggest fool of himself. Ushijima’s not a vampire. He’s just a fucking volleyball for brains.

He turns over, hiding his face in the grass and prays that the ground will swallow him up. He doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to live this one down.

“If you don’t believe me,” Ushijima says, “you can meet my family. I believe my mother has saved my birth video for whatever reason. Or you can…” He trails off, taking one of Kenma’s hands to place it on his wrist. Kenma can hear the faint pulse there and feels like he might actually die on the spot. 

He jerks his hand back. “Ugh. I believe you. I’m just embarrassed.”

“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” Ushijima replies. “I think it’s very amusing that this was what you thought of me. Although…”

“Yeah?” Kenma says, even though he doesn’t really want to know where this is going. 

“Does this mean that you befriended me for that reason alone? If so, if you do not want to hang out anymore, I will understand.”

Shit. No, no,  _ no.  _ “No,” Kenma says quickly. “I mean, yeah, it’s the reason I started talking to you originally. But now… shit, this is embarrassing.”

“Go on.”

“You’re still more interesting than anyone else in this godforsaken town, vampire or not.”

“Well,” Ushijima says, a small smile tugging at his lips - a smile that makes him look adorable despite his big size, and Kenma can think that now because he’s human, he’s  _ human,  _ and Kenma’s an idiot. “I think the same of you.”

They’re lying side by side, the light of the sun drying off their wet clothes, and Kenma looks over at Ushijima. For once, he really looks - at the way the light catches in his eyes, at the relaxed expression decorating his features, at the way he’s looking at Kenma like he’s a beam of light that’s illuminating his darkest cave. Kenma swallows.

“Do you mind if I -” Ushijima says, placing a hand on Kenma’s cheek. It’s rough and big against Kenma’s cheek. Kenma can’t find the words, so he just nods. And then Ushijima leans in.

Kenma’s first kiss is not like what he’d imagined it’d be. In the dating simulators, it’s always so smooth and natural and passionate the first time. But Ushijima’s kiss is a little awkward, and their noses bump together, and Ushijima’s hair tickles Kenma’s forehead, and Kenma ends up laughing into the kiss. Then Ushijima starts laughing again too. 

Kenma wants to hold onto his laughter forever.

He kisses Ushijima once again after they’ve both stopped laughing, a little less awkward this time, as they both learn the proper angles and intensity. Ushijima might not be a vampire, Kenma thinks. 

But in a way, this - being able to be with him - is a million times better.

.

(“What is this game?” Ushijima asks from where he’s sitting in Kenma’s desk chair, staring at the PC screen. “What is a…  _ harem? _ ”

“It’s why I thought you were a vampire,” Kenma says. “Press the start button.”

“Okay,” Ushijima says, peering forwards. “How do I win?”

“You have to talk to the characters.”

“You win just by talking to people?”

“Well, yeah, essentially.” 

“Oh, I’m the new student. That’s familiar. This person is a vampire, isn’t he?”

“Just play the game.”

There’s silence for a few minutes as Ushijima clicks through the dialogue, and Kenma almost thinks he might be getting the point. But then, “Why does he want to know what my type is? I do not have a type. Unless my type is very simply…  _ you. _ ”

“...don’t say things like that.”

“Why? It’s true.” Ushijima is silent for a minute again as Kenma tries to hide his furiously red cheeks, but then he says, “I think these vampire men are flirting with me.”

“That would be the point,” Kenma says, half-amused at how thick his boyfriend can be sometimes, but he leans into Ushijima’s arm anyways as he keeps playing, a little smile on his face.)

**Author's Note:**

> HAHAHA I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL THIS IS I'M SO SORRY USHIKEN NATION  
> I hope the plot twist fooled at least some of you.... but also thank you so much for reading and thank you especially to Christy, Sky, Tae, and Tathi for reading this over for me and giving me the strength to actually post it!!! I love you all lots and hope you enjoy my humble offering.


End file.
